Nine people charged with smuggling millions of dollars in drugs into Australia
More than $20 million of heroin and ice were smuggled into Australia by a highly sophisticated syndicate that used international airline cabin crew as drug mules.
VIC News
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Members of a syndicate that recruited international airline cabin crew as drug mules have pleaded guilty to dozens of drug trafficking offences.
After a five-month operation, Australian Federal Police and Border Force investigators charged nine people with smuggling more than $20 million worth of drugs into the country.
Police said the syndicate used crew from Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air as couriers for importing about 6kg of heroin and 8kg of methamphetamine.
A committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last month heard some of the accused would swap shifts to fly into particular airports, and couriers would hand over the drugs in hotel bathrooms.
Charge sheets allege one such heroin handover took place in Melbourne on Christmas Day 2018.
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Alleged ringleaders Michelle Tran, 48, and Kha Tien Ngo, 56, last month pleaded guilty to 11 charges each, including trafficking and importing a marketable quantity of heroin, and cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking.
Tran and Ngo have pleaded guilty to offences in Victoria and Western Australia.
Beng Goh, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking a marketable quantity of heroin.
Two men are fighting charges of trafficking, possessing and importing a marketable quantity of heroin.
Hoang Cao, 52, and Malaysia Airlines flight attendant Lawrence Solibun, 49, will face trial in the County Court in February next year. The rest of the syndicate will front plea hearings later this year.
Commander Amanda Kates, of the AFP, at the time heralded the smashing of the syndicate as a great success for the multi-agency investigation dubbed Operation Sunrise.